Handicapped and elderly people confined to wheelchairs face numerous obstacles in their daily lives. Some of those obstacles involve simple matters that those without handicaps or disabilities would not even notice. The simple act of traveling from one place to another can easily become a major undertaking that requires great effort and that may involve excessive risk.
Devices that reduce the difficulties of the handicapped and elderly traveling from one (1) place to another include the motorized wheelchair and its close relative the motorized scooter. Such devices and their equivalents are referred to hereinafter generically, including in the claims, as motorized wheelchairs. Recent developments in battery technology and motion controls have enabled the development of moderately priced motorized wheelchairs that can turn on a dime, move fractions of an inch, and provide nearly complete mobility, at least on level surfaces. Such motorized wheelchairs have been very successful and have aided numerous handicapped and elderly to lead more productive and enjoyable lives.
While very successful, motorized wheelchairs are not without problems. For example, a motorized wheelchair is typically controlled by a joystick that is mounted near the user's hand at the far end of an armrest. The term joystick as used herein, including in the claims, refers to any manually-operated control mechanism used by a wheelchair occupant to control motion. For example, touch pads may be used instead of joysticks to the same effect. Unfortunately, such joysticks are often located in about the same position where a handicapped or elderly person leans while reaching for something, to eat, or to perform any of a variety of daily tasks. When their torso or other body area contacts the joystick the motorized wheelchair can shoot forward and cause damage to nearly objects and possibly injury to the wheelchair occupant or bystanders.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a device which protects the occupant of a motorized wheelchair, bystanders and property. Beneficially such a device would be useful on a wide range of motorized wheelchair and scooters and would disable the motorized wheelchair to reduce or eliminate problems caused by a user coming into accidental contact with the joystick. Such a device that acts as a kill switch that disables a motorized wheelchair when its occupant is not fully seated would be particularly useful. As used herein a kill switch generically refers to the operation of effectively disabling the operation of a joystick. For example, by removing power or electronically locking out control by the joystick. The components that comprise a kill switch would ideally not cause discomfort and would not have exposed wiring. Such kill switches would ideally be retrofit or come as part of a new wheelchair.